Skvere Rebbe Allegedly Covered Up...

By Shmarya Rosenberg
Failed Messiah
January 19, 2014

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2014/01/skvere-rebbe-allegedly-covered-up-latest-case-of-new-square-child-sex-abuse-allowed-alleged-molester-123.html

Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld

“My mother, my brother and I told him [Twersky] what was happening to me. He let him [Taubenfeld] walk free.…The community protected him."

Skvere Rebbe Allegedly Covered Up Latest Case Of New Square Child Sex Abuse, Allowed Alleged Molester To Continue To Teach In Square Schools.

The alleged victim of Moshe Menachem Taubenfeld reported Taubenfeld’s alleged sexual abuse to the Skvere Rebbe Rabbi David Twersky and other New Square leaders in late 2006 when the victim was 13- or 14-years old, the Journal News reported.

The victim, identified only as Laiby, said that when he and his family reported the abuse – which allegedly began in September 2001 after the young victim told Taubendeld how traumatized he was by the September 11 terror attacks – to Twersky, Twersky forbade them from reporting Taubenfeld, a teacher in Skvere schools, to police.

“My mother, my brother and I told him [Twersky] what was happening to me. He let him [Taubenfeld] walk free.…The community protected him. Since New Square did not want to deal with this, I went to police [in July 2013]. I need to feel a closure,” Laiby, who is now 20-years-old, reportedly said.

This mirrors the stories of other New Square child sex abuse victims who say they also went to Twersky to report child sex abuse and were ordered by him not to report the crimes to police and to not talk about them within the community or with reporters.

Twersky did not respond to requests for comment from the paper.

As FailedMessiah.com was the first to report, Taubenfeld – who was still teaching in Skvere schools and who had assumed the name of Mendel Zarkowsky (although his true identity was well known in New Square and was known to Twersky) – was arrested Friday. He is currently free on $25,000 bail.

His brother Hershel Taubenfeld – who also taught in Skvere hasidic schools – pleaded guilty to forcibly touching a young boy in 2011. His admission of guilt came after he was promised a no-prison sentence of six years of probation. He was originally charged with with 10 counts of forcible touching, 10 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and 10 counts of third-degree sex abuse. All those charges are misdemeanors.

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